Month: August 2017

It seems to be the time for bears. This morning as we left Kathleen Lake Campground, we saw a black bear at the side of the road as we were turning onto the main highway. This one was definitely not interested in sticking around. He quickly came up onto the road and ran across it into the woods. No second chances for pictures of him!

They say that the Haines Highway is one of the most picturesque – that and the one going into Valdez. Where we were in clouds going into Valdez, today we had a lovely sunny day with lots of blue sky and just a few clouds. We had one hill we came down that was just rows of glaciers beside each other as we looked ahead and to our right.

 

 

We needed to dump our tanks and refill with water and knew there was a Tesoro gas station in Haines. We found it as we arrived in town and were able to get refilled – we are going to try heading for one of the state parks here and they won’t have drinking water there. While we were filling our water tank, there was another truck parked to also get water – it turned out he was the campground host for one of the state parks and was able to advise us on the two parks. We made the decision to head to the park where he was and since it wasn’t likely to be as busy. The other park is where the grizzly bears go to fish and thus all the campers want to go there too so they can see them. While this park is in the opposite direction, we are happy for a quieter place and were very happy once we arrived. We have a wonderful campsite and only a few others for company. We also made a stop in town at the hardware store where Paul was able to pick up a small axe. He broke the handle off our small hatchet a few days ago trying to get through some knotty pine. However, he’s been using the hatchet head to split the wood until we could get another one. He simply used it as a wedge, taking another piece of wood as a hammer. Sometimes when it wasn’t enough, he’d add a rock to the top of the wedge in order to get it further down to split the wood! It was hard work though and we’ve wanted to replace our previous small axe that was stolen a few years ago when we had a break in to the storage area of our trailer while it was parked in our trailer lot at our community. This one looks like it will be just great!

We set up camp and went back into town for a few groceries. We’ve picked up just a few things that will last us until we get back across the border into Canada. Whitehorse has a Superstore so we’ll restock further there.

Our night finished watching a sunset over the Chikat Inlet behind the Takhinsha Mountains. Tomorrow we’ll head back through Haines and see if we can find the bears fishing!

August 2^nd , where has the summer gone? We’re approaching 10 weeks on the road now and we’re still loving it! I think about the people who pack everything up into storage, and hit the road full time Rving. While it holds a certain appeal, and North America is big enough that you wouldn’t run out of places to see, we both know we would miss being with family.

Another nice day – warming up a bit more and still lots of sun and blue sky. Beautiful morning with the sun shining through our campsite.

Shortly after we left our campground, as we rounded the end of Kluane Lake, we saw a grizzly bear walking along the ditch on the opposite side of the road. Another vehicle had stopped for pictures and Paul was able to quickly pull of to the side so we could have a good look. He didn’t stick around long before he was out of view.

We made a stop at the Visitor Centre for Kluane National Park where we had a chance to see an excellent film about the park. We also decided to head for the only campground in the park at Kathleen Lake. More mountain peaks and lakes – and we arrived at the park and found a nice campsite. After setting up we took off for a nice hike up a bit of a hill and with a few views of the lake; finally found the trail down to the water so we could see more of what we came for. No bears encountered!

We ate supper out by the campfire, and then at 8 pm headed over to the campfire circle where one of the park staff was giving a talk on mountaineering – then and now. It was a good talk; well attended. With it being light so long, it is different from many of the presentations I remember as a kid – no films or slide presentations – just talking but he had lots of real equipment along for props. Tomorrow we will leave here, drive through BC and back to Alaska to the port of Haines.